Remember how we started an outdoor landscape lighting project last week? Kevin and Rob (from Rob’s Electrical) finished up the installation and it looks so terrific! The house is a completely new house at night.
I couldn’t find Kevin’s keys to move his big ole’ truck! Of all the days…
Let’s start at the beginning though to get a better idea of where this yard began. Here’s our home five years ago just before we moved in, the only lighting outdoors included a lamp post (hidden there underneath that ivy bush in the front) and a front porch light in the alcove that leads up to the front door.
We eventually gave the yard a full makeover which included a retaining wall to get rid of a front yard slope, a flagstone walkway (right over the existing concrete path but with a few more curves), saltillo tile for the porch, and a curvy new lawn on each side of the path lined with LOTS of mediterranean-style plants (for low drought, San Diego-friendly landscaping).
I had always been itching to paint our Spanish home a more Spanish color, so last fall we painted the house!
Before:
After:
A subtle change in the photos, but so drastic in person! That crazy weather doesn’t help the photos, does it?
Another phase of the yard transformation has been to install the 30 or so outdoor lights and transformer that we picked out from Lowe’s last summer (they’ve been waiting a while for installation day…). And now it’s so exciting that they are in! And working! Connected to electricity and welcoming us home each night.
Big thanks to our new outdoor electrician Rob whom we found through HomeAdvisor and who partnered up with Kevin (to save a little on the install costs) to finish the landscape lighting up. I highly recommend him for all of you local San Diegans.
A peek at the left side of the front yard during the day:
And at night (this angle shows how we added lights back through the deck area and side yard as well):
The right side of the yard during the day:
And at night:
Kevin wrapped a few uplights around the right side of the house as well.
The majority of the lights we’ve added included these little incandescent mushroom path lights (for the actual paths and to line the lawn and sidewalk) as well as a few of these:
And our tree lights of choice included these low voltage halogen flood lights and several LED flood lights:
Most of the lights are also LED, which means they’ll shine on for a loooong time and will save us dollars in the long run.
Wow, such a huge difference. She looks so resort-y now – kind of like she belongs on a tropical island somewhere serving mai tais with the little umbrellas in them. No? Just me? Clearly I’m still in the ooh-la-la mode now (and clearly ready for a vacation ;)).
This project was sponsored in part by HomeAdvisor who helped to compensate for some of the electrician’s time in exchange for a review of their services. See part 1 here and part 2 here, we’ve been very happy and I will definitely be using the great online resource (with so many reviews of all kinds) in the future. You can check out the website for home repair/service recommendations right here.
PS all curb appeal projects for this casa are sorted right here.
it’s a beautiful effect but the night light is the same of horror film :-)
Eek! Not what I was going for :-).
Looks really good! We lucked out with some decent exterior lighting at our new house, but this makes me want to do even more!
Love the photo of your house from one of our recent May Gray nights— the lights look cool with the mysterious gray cloudy evening. :)
Love those May skies! Especially with the city lights shining against them :).
Lookin’ good! I can’t tell you how often we come home to a dark house with the kids. Thankfully our neighborhood is pretty well lit (it’s bright enough to need blackout curtains in the nursery!). That said, I’ve often thought about how nice it would be to have some accent lights along our walkway.
Gorgeous!!! We only have a porch light- I’ve always wanted to do something like this, but I wouldn’t even know where to start in the planning!
Wow, your house totally does look like a resort now! I’m so jealous, we don’t have a single outlet on the outside of our house! HA
Ha, thanks so much Sara! When I first drove up I imagined I was at my own little desert oasis ;).
The outlets on the outside of our house have been an awesome addition for parties and what not.